Monday, March 27, 2006

As I was leaving the flat the other day, I discovered that the book I was reading was to big for the smallish handbag I had planned to wear. In circumstances like this one have to possibilities; bigger handbag or smaller book. I usually go for the bigger handbag - I always carry big handbags. On this occasion, however, I decided to spend the last minute before running for the metro, browsing my bookshelves for a suitable book. My eyes fell on a thin, small light blue spine next to my big yellow The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh: another book by A. A. Milne grabbed at a flee market at a time I cannot remember; Not That It Matters.

Not That It Matters is a superb collection of essays first published in 1919 (mine is a fourth edition from 1924). Milne covers a variety of topics - I still have a few to go - but all the essays have a lightness and easiness which make them an enjoyable read. The essays are short and have interesting perspectives on small things in life.

The first essay "The pleasure of writing" is rambling thought on the pleasure of writing with a new nib. But the rambling still has a thread linking it all together. A perfect blog post has the same quality; a new look written down in rambling thoughts, but still with a punch line or a plot.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

One of my new year resolutions was to start reading biographies. I had no idea - and no plans - that the first biography would be one on Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

The book I have read is Dronning Margrethe by Annelise Bistrup. I found it in my local public library and was taken by the beautiful pictures from her first year as queen in 1972. The book is based on interviews made with the Queen. My impression after reading the book is that she is a woman of great human knowledge. Even though she is not very open about the up's and down's in her life, she is quite reflected on how people have influenced her and how she has developed through the years.

Her view on history, however, did not impress me. Though I am not sure how a view of history looks like from a royal perspective. She is in favour of learning the royal lineage by heart, as she believes chronology to be of vital importance. She admits that her view on the teaching of history might be heavily influenced by her age (born in 1940). On the other hand she believes everyone should have a grasp of the history of ideas, to know the context of political history, though political history seems to come first. I was softened by her view on history of ideas, but cannot agree with her on the learning of kings and queens by heart. (This might, of course, be because I have never bothered by learning any royal house's lineage by heart, but I usually manage to put a monarch in his or her right century - I might even get the decades right.)

My ambition the last years have been to get a PhD-scholarship at the University of Oslo. This years deadline is approaching with tremendous speed. By the 7th of April one has to find a supervisor, filling out the eight pages application and finish writing the ten page research proposal. That is, if one is to submit an application.

In some ways I made the decision not to apply two months ago, when I found out I did not have the time and energy to write a new research proposal. But somehow I suppose I have had a hope that a stroke of genius might appear. I have been given the advice to submit last year's application again, but during the last week I have been informed that it is the same committee as last year, so this strengthen my decision not to stress bother about this deadline.

Making this decision, is not the same as giving up the idea of a PhD scholarship, just postponing it. It is a season for everything, and perhaps I need some time to find some fresh, exciting ideas to look at. Perhaps I will find somewhere else I really want to go, someone else I really want to work with or something completely different to work on.

I feel a certain calmness about letting this deadline go, and it has been a while since I have felt a harmony coming out of my decisions. It is lovely, for once, not being stressed by a deadline.